Power Supply

Clareman

Hi All,

Anyone know of a cheap place to get power supplies for boxes? I think they are all 12v power supplies, I have stupidily got all my cabling nice and tidy but I'll have to move 1 of them soon, I don't want to have to rip everything apart to get out the power supply, I'd be quite happy to buy a spare.

thanks

Newtown90

What box is it for mate?

http://satboxes.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=15

snaps

Glenviewjf wrote: »

What box is it for mate?

http://satboxes.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=15

a lot of boxes use same power supplies as external hard drives, modems, power tool chargers. I'm using a Vodafone modem power supply on one of my dream boxes for the last year or more.

Clareman

I've noticed they all take 12v ones alright, I guess I'll just get onto ebay, €11 (including shipping) seems a little bit pricey for me, but I'm a tight b@stard

snaps

Clareman wrote: »

I've noticed they all take 12v ones alright, I guess I'll just get onto ebay, €11 (including shipping) seems a little bit pricey for me, but I'm a tight b@stard

see what you have lying around. You may have something

Clareman

I threw out a load of old cables and stuff about 8 months ago (just before the baby was born), I counted 14 Scart cables that I threw out, of course a week later someone asked me for a scart cable.

snaps

Clareman wrote: »

I threw out a load of old cables and stuff about 8 months ago (just before the baby was born), I counted 14 Scart cables that I threw out, of course a week later someone asked me for a scart cable.

never ever throw anything out! My mate threw out a 1.1m dish 2 years ago. Now he needs it again! Gutted.

zg3409

Beware of cheap power supplies. The very cheap ebay ones are usually low quality and often cannot supply as much power as they claim. If you draw lots of power the voltage drops or they blow. Some also have safety concerns they are such low quality.

Along with the voltage (say 12V) you also need the correct current (say 1amp or 1000mA) but if buying a cheap substitute I would recommend doubling the amperage (say 2A) to prevent it overheating and damaging the equipment.

Also the round plug at the end are often the same, but sometimes they are not. Some have different outer and inner diameters. In some cases the polarity is reversed (normally the outside is minus) but on some US equipment it is the opposite.

Remember if powering expensive equipment pay a little extra for an over-rated half decent supply. A failing supply can be annoying, especially if they also damage the equipment.

A lot of "universal" power supplies are not properly regulated and their voltages vary all over the place. More and more devices are "sensitive" to a dodgy supply, so beware, if you pay 2 euro for it, it was probably built for 30p

http://hackaday.com/2012/01/04/exposing-some-fake-electronics-with-too-good-to-be-true-prices/

Capt'n Midnight

Also beware of very heavy power supplies that feel like they have a real metal transformer in them. These are not regulated and can be up to 15V with a low load. Most equipment these days doesn't care but there's enough stuff like hard drives designed to run on 12V that it just isn't worth considering.